The whole cricket fraternity is excited for today's Asia Cup fixture between two rival teams, India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan faced Hong Kong in their previous matches. Although both the teams beat Hong Kong, India took the game till the last over of the match, as Hong Kong at one stage looked like they can win the match comfortably.
Before the thrilling encounter today, let us recall the close encounter between Pakistan and India in their last match against each other in the Asia Cup tournament, in 2016. Pakistan were in a good stage to win the match, despite a poor batting display. However, Virat Kohli was the man who made the difference in that match.
India won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first. Pakistan exhibited a poor batting display as they could only manage to score 83 runs in 17.3, thanks to India's clean and proper bowling. Pakistan didn't get the desired start to their innings as both their openers got out cheaply. Hafeez and Sharjeel, Pakistan's openers in that match scored just 4 runs and 7 runs respectively before returning back to the pavilion.
After the poor start, none of the Pakistani batsmen stood up to score some runs. Sarfraz Ahmed tried his best to fight back in the innings, as he scored 25 runs before falling to Jadeja's magic delivery. Khurram Manzoor (10) and Sarfraz Ahmed (25) were the only two batsmen to score in double figures in that match.
Jasprit Bumrah was unbelievable, as 2 out of his 3 overs were maiden overs. Although he picked just one wicket in the innings, the pressure created by him and Ashish Nehra set up the tone for the other bowlers to tear apart the Pakistani batting unit.
Hardik Pandya was India's best bowler in that match in terms of wickets, as he picked up 3 wickets dismissing Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Amir. Jadeja bagged two wickets in that match, dismissing Sarfraz Ahmed and Wahab Riaz. Yuvraj Singh, Aashish Nehra, and Jasprit Bumrah picked one wicket each.
In reply, India too, fell off to a poor start as both their openers got out for a duck. Then came Virat Kohli who kept on hanging from one end. None of the other batsmen was able to score huge runs for India in that match except Virat. Virat scored 49 runs off 51 deliveries, an innings that included seven boundaries, before being sent back to the dressing room with the help of a wrong decision from the umpire. Finally, India were victorious by 5 wickets with Virat bagging the Man of the Match award yet again against Pakistan.
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